MBB Recruiting Update: "The Chasson One"

Jim "Emeritus" Rutter

10/06/2010

Without question, for Stanford Men's Basketball in the recruiting class of 2011, the talented Mr. Randle is "The Chasson One" for the Cardinal. Chasson will be on campus this weekend to kick the tires. To say the least, we're all excited about the potential impact this young man could have on the rising Stanford program. He would be the cherry on top of the cream of the six-man 2010 crop! Beat SC!

MBB Recruiting Update: "The Chasson
One"

The time
is coming...for Johnny Dawkins, the "Day of Randle-ing" is close at
hand. Ok, that is perhaps a touch overly
melodramatic....

We admit to being very anxious as the end-game approaches
with a national top-100 player who is one of the highest-rated
uncommitted guards in the country. 6-2, 165-pound play-making point
guard prospect Chasson Randle ["Chasson" rhymes with 'Jason'] will be sealing a
deal soon and we are all waiting for the word on his school of
choice.

Rated by Scout.com as a "four-star" prospect and the #9 point guard in the entire
class of 2011 class, ESPN rates him as the #38 overall prospect in the country!
TOS has him at #68 overall. Randle reports offers from more than a dozen
top basketball schools, including Stanford, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Florida State and Northwestern.

We have made through cut after
cut and we are now getting down to crunch-time! The shot clock is winding down!
This
is a Dawkins personal priority! Like "Jesus Shuttleworth" in He Got
Game, Randle is "The Chasson One" for
the Cardinal. He is scheduled to visit Illinois next week. In July, the Randle
family narrowed things down. It is going to be either Stanford,
home-state Illinois (maybe he should get advice from with "Joel
Goodson" from the 1984 Tom Cruise classic Risky Business) or
regional power Purdue. This is a bright kid who is taking his time, weighing his
wealth of attractive options, and making sure he makes the right decision... for
him.

Randle has stated
previously that his choice of college will be about "comfort".
While he has been to the beautiful Stanford campus before, accompanied the first
time by his father "Willie", this coming weekend should be a far better opportunity
for him to meet and get comfortable with his potential new teammates
- six of whom have just entered the Stanford Basketball program for the
first time this fall. He will be getting a first-hand look at the Cardinal's bright future
and we thing he will be lovin' it!

The
Cardinal is unabashedly in love with this big-time,
long-armed game-changing point guard. He can play the "2",
but size makes him a more natural "1". Stanford would like him to play
point, but more importantly, the point is where Randle himself
envisions his best path to a potential professional basketball career (if
he doesn't decide to go straight to medical school!).

Chasson will be accompanied on this trip by his mother and a sister who will get a chance to sign-off on this "Stanford" place way out on the
west coast. We feel good about our chances. These visits usually go awfully well! Seeing the amazing campus, interacting with professors and staff, and meeting the Stanford players will be impactful, but It won't hurt to let the Randle
family see some school spirit during a "cruel", yet classy smack-down of the "sin-to-winners" from
Southern California!In an earlier interview with The Bootleg,
Randle noted that wears jersey number "5" at Rock Island high school
in Illinois because he was born on Feb. 5, and because "it takes the whole team
coming together, all five, to win a game." Sharp-shooting Jeremy Green now
wears #45, but started out with #5. Hmm, why did he
switch? (Just kidding!). If all goes well, Randle could be wearing that #5
Stanford jersey, which has been worn previously by outstanding Cardinal players
like George Zaninovich (1951-52, the father of current WCC Commissioner
Jamie Zaninovich), Pete Sauer (a starting forward on the 1998 Final
Four team) and dual-sport star Teyo Johnson, We bet Johnny Dawkins and his
staff would sew "RANDLE" with gilded thread on any jersey to make this talented young man comfortable and feeling
appreciated.

Aaron Bright is wearing #2, Anthony Brown is wearing #3,
Stefan Nastic is wearing #4. Who will be wearing #5?
Stay tuned. We are attempting to reach Randle before he heads out west for his
big weekend on the Farm.

There
is no question that Chasson "Too Hard to Handle" Randle, a talented young
student-athlete with "Stanford stuff", would be a
monumental addition to the ongoing effort to elevate the rising
Cardinal back to one of the elite programs in college
basketball.

Additional Note: Randle is not the only
prospect that has Stanford excited. There is another real possibility looming.
Shooting guard Andre Hollins of White Station High
School in Memphis, Tenn is an academically-inclined young man with a
handful of solid offers who is rated three stars by Scout and
is considered the #30 SG in the Class of 2011. Hollins had a good
summer with a great showing at the Tournament of Champions (TOC) and the
Pangos tournament and is "rising fast". A talented defender and
on-the-way-to-deadly shooter, he will be visiting Palo Alto the
following weekend (Oct 15-17) and Andre will have the opportunity to
see the Cardinal team practicing.

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